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Sexual assault in the military: Victims tell their stories

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The Pentagon is poised to begin training women as Army Rangers by mid-2015 and as Navy SEALs a year later as part of a plan to change the physical and mental standards that men and women will have to meet in order to quality for certain infantry, armor, commando and other front-line positions across the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Under the plans recently introduced, there would be one common standard for men and women for each job. It's part of the Pentagon's campaign to address the sexual assault crisis in the military.
(Mark Humphrey/The Associated Press)

“They were aware of it in the Pentagon. People were aware but nobody talked about it. It was very quiet.” - Jane Smith

The sexual assault crisis in the military has garnered national attention in recent years with stunning reports that tens of thousands of personnel may have been raped and assaulted, and little or no recourse and assistance has been provided to them.

In the face of retaliation from commanders and their own units, many have been ostracized. For some, the mental anguish has rivaled the physical pain they have endured.

In the coming weeks, PennLive will share the personal stories of military men and women – representing all manner of rank, age and experience — who have been sexually assaulted while in service. Their accounts underscore the breadth and scope of this crisis.

The two women featured in this story both live in the Harrisburg area, and both retired among the highest ranks of their branches: one was a Brigadier General in the Air Force, the other a Lt. Colonel in the Army.

PennLive does not reveal the identities of victims of sexual assault unless they specify otherwise. The women agreed to tell their stories under those conditions. For the purpose of this story, they will be identified by pseudonyms.

ROTC recruit assaulted

In the summer of 1973, the Watergate scandal held the nation spellbound. Billie Jean King beat Chrissie Evert in Wimbledon, Roe V. Wade legalized abortion and the cost of a gallon of gas was 40 cents.

In the midwest, a young woman midway between her sophomore and junior year in college set off for ROTC training camp. Hers was only the second class of women in the ROTC. The military academies had yet to open their doors to women.

“The boys didn’t want us and the officers didn’t know what to do with us,” recalls the woman, who will be identified as Jane Doe.

Doe was prepared to commit to the military, and the training camp was the last hurdle before she took that step.

A formal dinner at the officers club capped the last night of camp. The mixed gender group included the active duty captain, who was responsible for assessing whether she had the makings of an officer.

The captain had other ideas that night. He began to ply her with Singapore slings, and Doe, who attended a Christian college and had never had a drink in her life, had no idea how potent they were.

The captain kept the refills coming and by the time the dinner event ended, Doe was drunk. It took little for the captain to get her into his room, and before Doe knew what had happened, he had sexually assaulted her.

Ongoing harassment

What the lieutenant colonel experienced was far more insidious.

Throughout her entire Army career during the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, Jane Smith (a pseudonym) was subjected to repeated sexual harassment that included being addressed with sexual innuendos and inappropriate language to touching and groping.

The offenders were usually officers who outranked her; the incidents often occurred in front of other high-ranking officers. The harassment took place in offices, in training and in locations from base installations and housing quarters to the Pentagon.

“It usually happened right in the office, especially because I might be the only woman in the office and the rest were men,” she said.

What happened to Smith during her career would arguably be grounds for termination in today’s workplace. Smith was once pinned against a wall by an higher ranking officer, who proceeded to play with one of the buttons on her blouse. In another instance, an officer sat on top of her desk facing her and began to make comments about his genitalia. She was repeatedly addressed in intimidating and downgrading language.

“If a man tried to grab me, as kindly as I could, I would slide out of it,” Smith said.

She, like Doe, did what countless of other women in their position have done: nothing.

“We women at that time, we just pushed it away, laughed it off and moved on,” Smith said. “There was no where to go. The person outranked you. There was nothing in place.”

Given her lack of worldly experience, Doe simply did not know what to do when she was assaulted.

“There was no way on God’s green Earth I was going to tell anybody what happened,” Doe said. “All I wanted to was become an officer....I just bottled it up and try to forget about it.”

Fearful of retribution

In both cases, the women feared that if they reported their offenders - who outranked them and had a say in their assessment - they would jeopardize their own career.

“This is the man who was ultimately responsible for grading me as a cadet,” Doe said. “If I got an unfavorable rating, my hopes of becoming an officer would have been over.”

Said Smith: “They were aware of it in the Pentagon. People were aware but nobody talked about it. It was very quiet.”

Under pressure from Washington, the military has in recent years responded to calls for action to address this long-entrenched crisis. Since establishing its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program eight years ago, the Pentagon has received a dramatic spike in the number of reported sexual assault cases. But a survey of military personnel paints an ominous picture: Pentagon leaders estimate that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, for instance, and most are unwilling to come forward despite new oversight and assistance programs aimed at curbing the crimes.

Both say unit cohesion - which plays an integral role in the success of missions - often factors into the decision not to report.

“When there is an assault within that unit, the whole unit cohesion is just shredded and there can be a lot of blame the victim for shredding it,” Doe said. “Not that she asked for it but ‘our unit was really tight and she blew it up on us. She ratted out. We could’ve solved it ourselves...’”

Commanders who follow up on allegations of assault risk ending a soldier’s career and putting their unit’s effectiveness at risk, Doe said.

“Commanders are in this weird position of trying to decided what to do and when they are not trained in what is domestic violence, what is sexual assault, what do those words mean. It’s really not an easy position to be in,” she said. “We don’t help them, we haven’t helped them.”

In all their years as commanders, neither Doe nor Smith had anyone - male or female - report sexual assaults. Doe did, however, court martial someone under her command who was sexually assaulting recruits and applicants.

“In a lot of cases they [the recruits] went running the other way, and who can blame them?” Doe said.

Implementing changes

The Pentagon has made strides at addressing and solving the overall crisis - but it has a daunting task ahead.

Its 2013 Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Strategic Plan addresses prevention, investigation, accountability, and advocacy and assistance for victims. It calls for immediate implementation of measures, including enhanced commander accountability and improved response and treatment of victims. Faced with mounting congressional efforts to strip commanders of their ability to overturn convictions in rape and assault cases, the military has launched an aggressive campaign to educate and raise awareness on sexual violence.

Doe and Smith acknowledge that the sexual violence in the military is not contained to women alone, and increasing reports show that men also are assaulting other men, and women assaulting men and women under their command.

In May, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, addressing the problem of sexual assaults in the armed forces at West Point, said: "This scourge must be stopped." File Photo: (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Doe rebuffs suggestions that the power culture of the military breeds predators. The military is a subset of society, she said, and draws from all segments of society.

“The military casts a very wide net and tries very hard to look like America,” Doe said. “That is the game plan - to look like America.”

Smith thinks war brings out a certain mentality - especially in the male-dominated Army - that disposes them to violence.

“It changes people, the fear, the aggressiveness,” she said. “You do things you have never done before. I have seen reserve units come out of active duty and destroy a whole barracks. These were wonderful men... they were great fathers. They got into all this guy thing.. I saw them do it, they tore the whole inside of a barracks. Why did they do it? What can I do to have a great time while I’m here? All ethics get thrown out, nobody is watching me.”

Doe and Smith are confident the military will solve the problem. After all, it has been first to successfully tackle a slew of societal problems, including racial and gender inequalities, she said.

“A lot of it was through education,” Doe said. “A lot of it was beating it into people and a total lack of tolerance.”

Doe saw her predator years later at the Pentagon. By then, he was of colonel; she was a captain. Although the emotional gates flooded open for her, Doe didn’t waver. It was old news, she said, and by then, she suspected, a “he said, she said,” situation. No one would believe her.

“I doubt that story was very unique,” she said.

Doe said she does not hold the military responsible. It was his crime, she said, not the military’s.

Smith echoes that sentiment. In her experience, a minority of men tarnished her Army career. The rest, she said, were exemplary military personnel.

“It’s the 1 percent,” she said. “They are the ones that make all the noise. You have to look at the other percentage who are good leaders and wouldn’t do anything to hurt anyone.”

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